Page 22 of Owned by Four Alphas (Silverthorn Alphas #2)

They had spent hours searching the woods. Kaelen no longer cared about being careful, about giving away their position. He shifted into a dragon and took to the skies, patrolling in widening circles in the hope of maybe catching a glimpse of his mate.

It was futile. She had disappeared at some point in the night, hours and hours ago. And he had no idea which direction she had gone in. Ronan thought he caught something near the border of the Silverthorn Kingdom, but the trail ran cold, and there was no way of confirming if it had even been Selena. A thorough search of the village beyond, what Ronan believed to be Selena’s village, showed nothing but charred remains and one solitary, frustratingly empty, cottage.

No scent. No hint of magic. Whatever tricks Selena had learned, they were astonishingly effective. For all intents and purposes, Selena had disappeared. And they were wasting precious time.

Landing with a thundering crash back in the clearing, he shocked Elian out of whatever magical meditation he had been deep in, and the Fae scowled.

“Anything?” Kaelen growled.

Elian shook his head.

“Fuck,” Kaelen replied, his keen eyes searching the tree line. Ronan crept out from the shadows, panting slightly, his eyes half-crazed.

“We need a plan,” said Elian. “If she’s truly gone after what she believes to be her father, then I need to do more research, figure out where that is.”

“We can’t go back to the Marble Halls,” Ronan snarled.

Elian’s eyes flickered to Kaelen, his expression guarded. “I wasn’t thinking the Marble Halls.”

“You want to go to the Palace of Embers,” Kaelen said, shaking out his wings.

Elian nodded. “If you grant me unrestricted access to your libraries and archives, I may be able to work out where she’s going. If we act fast, we may be able to intercept her. She can’t be moving very fast.”

Ronan growled, pacing the grass, his tail thrashing, “I want to continue searching for her. We’ll waste time travelling north.”

“If we haven’t found her already, it means we likely won’t find her at all. Our only chance is to anticipate where she’s going and meet her there,” Elian argued. “Trust me, I don’t like it either. But we have no idea how long it will take her to get there. What if it’s already too late?”

“Theldir is buried in a volcano north of the First Realm,” said Kaelen. “Nobody knows where precisely, but if it is him tricking her, pretending to be her father, chances are he’s leading her north anyway. And when we’re in my territory, I can command patrols to search the mountain ranges. It’s easiest to hunt that terrain from the skies.”

Ronan bared his teeth, but he looked to be considering it. “What about Malek?”

“Wherever he’s gone, I doubt he’s coming back here,” said Elian. “And if he does, he can follow our scent. We don’t have time to wait around and find out.”

“Agreed,” said Kaelen. “What about it, Ronan?”

Ronan growled, claws scraping the earth, thrashing as he paced. Eventually, he stopped, turning to face them. “We have to work together,” he said, his voice firm, “We can’t carry on like we have been. Whatever rifts, whatever arguments we had, we need to lay them to rest. We cannot fight each other and a buried god at the same time.”

Kaelen snarled, flaming heat licking the back of his throat. It was easier said than done. His alpha still sang for control, demanded respect. The chasm between them was practically a living thing, angry and hissing and crying for blood.

But Ronan was right. All that mattered was finding Selena. There was nothing he would not do to find Selena.

“Agreed,” he said. “I’ll fly ahead, how do you two wish to travel?”

“I’ll run with Ronan,” said Elian, smoothly shifting into some form of sleek, muscled mountain cat. “We’ll meet you there.”

Ronan grunted, turning north. “Try to keep up, Fae.”

“Please, I’m faster than you.”

Without a backwards glance, the two took off, Elian’s lithe frame indeed outpacing Ronan’s wolf.

Kaelen growled and spread his wings, shooting upwards into the sky with several powerful beats.

It was likely they would encounter some problems at his seat of power. He didn’t care. At this point, he was far past diplomacy. He would rip apart anyone who stood in his way. His people needed a reminder of why exactly it was he was the King of Embers.

As he flew, gliding through the cool summer air, he was haunted by Selena’s eyes.

He had nearly done it. He had nearly collapsed at her feet by the tree the previous evening and begged her forgiveness. Confessed his love, his adoration, his servitude . She had looked up at him, silver eyes wide with hope, and everything he wanted to say was there on the tip of his tongue.

I’m sorry, my love. I’m so, so fucking sorry. All this time, you were right. I’ve been controlling you, keeping you under my thumb, desperate to shield you from those who would harm you. But I was wrong. So very wrong. I thought it would be enough, keeping you safe would be enough. But it wasn’t. Seeing you withdraw, watching you grow to hate me, it’s eating me alive. I got this wrong. I got all of it so wrong.

But he hadn’t said that. He’d let his fear, his need to protect overwhelm him. And now he was paying the price.

If he’d spoken those words, would she have run away? Would she have truly believed that she was better on her own? He had failed so spectacularly. His job wasn’t to control, wasn’t to dominate, it was to care for her. And she had tried to tell him so many times that what he was doing to her wasn’t caring for her at all. He hadn’t listened. And in the end, it didn’t even matter. She was gone.

He vowed to himself, then and there, that once she was safely back in his arms, he would never make the same mistake again.

It didn’t take him long to reach his palace. A few hours, perhaps. The sun had passed its high point and was sailing to the west.

He landed with all the force of a crack of lightning through the mouth of the dragon door, his claws scraping against the basalt. Several dragons, in their scales and human skin, startled backwards as he shook his wings out with an almighty roar.

“My king!” Iveir was shoving through the mass of rearing bodies, his arm heavily bandaged, his leg limping.

Some of the dragons crouched low, growling at him, their wings spreading in direct challenge.

Kaelen roared again, lashing his tail around, fire spilling from his teeth.

“If any are brave enough to try and stop me claiming my throne, I dare them to try now or submit.”

A dragon he recognized as Egais’s brother launched forward with a snarl, his copper scales glinting.

“Your mate killed my brother,” he said, his chest heaving, smoke billowing from his throat. “I demand retribution.”

“Then try and take it,” Kaelen hissed, spreading his wings.

The dragon roared, tackling Kaelen out of the dragon door and into freefall down the side of the dead volcano, teeth snapping at his neck.

Kaelen growled, wings catching an updraft and flipping them over, digging his claws into the dragon’s belly. It screeched in pain and outrage, lashing out at Kaelen. He grunted as the dragon’s sharp claws ripped through his shoulder.

His eyes narrowed.

The time for peace and negotiation was over.

He was king.

And despite all the dragons’ pretense at nobility, their carefully honed airs and graces, underneath it all they remained as savage as their ancestors. And they respected power. They feared the spilling of their blood.

The strongest among them was the one unafraid to rip his enemies apart.

And so Kaelen did.

He drove the dragon into the side of the volcano, dragging his frame against the jagged rocks, shredding his wings. The dragon howled and lashed, but Kaelen showed no mercy. With a fearsome strike of his teeth, he tore out the dragon’s throat, leaving his bleeding body to fall down the rest of the volcano.

This time when he flew through the dragon door and shifted, his clothes smeared with blood, he was met with bowed knees and murmured submissions. He snarled, muscles bunching, relishing how his people cowered and bent their heads to the floor.

He had tried the peaceful way for months. This was the true way of things. He knew Selena would not like it, but they had been given a choice. And some of them had chosen wrong. Any further disobedience would be met with swift death.

He stalked through the halls, the many nobles, servants, and soldiers dropping to their knees as he passed them.

Throwing open the doors to the great hall, lit by hundreds of sconces of fire, the throne carved from the basalt of the volcano itself, he breathed in.

He was home.

Stalking forward, yet more nobles and advisors taking in his bloodied form and furious expression moved swiftly out of his way. He cleared the steps to the throne, then turned, hands gripped into fists, mouth turned upwards in a sneer.

His people were pouring into the hall, curious and scared, eyeing him with remembered respect.

Iveir limped to his side, his gray hair tied back, his injuries many.

Kaelen nodded at him, allowing him to take his seat beside the throne.

He turned to the rest of his people.

“I have been gone for some time,” he said, his voice low and angry, “and in that time, it seems you have all forgotten the way of things. Some of you have grown ambitious, reaching for power that is not yours .”

Some of the alphas shifted on their feet, their eyes downcast, the scent of fear emanating from them thick and pungent.

“You have challenged me. Challenged the queen. Several of you are dead as a result. And more will die.”

The door creaked, and Ronan stalked in, his muzzle peeled back over his teeth. Elian followed, in his true form, grinning and waving at the nobles, steel in his eyes.

“The queen is missing,” Kaelen declared, growling at the looks of surprise, “I want every single soldier capable of flight scouring the Realm for her, and beyond. She is searching for something. Something pretending to want to help her. Something ancient and deadly. Something that some of you here may also seek.”

He sat, crossing one long leg over the other.

“So tell me,” he said, his voice growing soft, “which of you here are members of the Order of Theldir?”

Thirty-six were dead by nightfall. Several more were imprisoned for Elian to interrogate.

As the last rays disappeared over the western forest, Kaelen took to the skies, accompanied by a host of young, loyal alphas.

It was time to find his mate.